Gouache Painting Tutorial: James Gurney’s 25 Tips for Sketching Architecture

James Gurney paints a study of an old house in gouache. He starts by drawing the perspective with a water-soluble colored pencil on a casein-primed aqua media sketchbook page clipped to a DIY tripod easel. He then shares 25 tips for both beginners and advanced painters as he paints the building using a limited palette of gouache: white, black, yellow ochre, and raw umber. He demonstrates three main kinds of brushes: synthetic flat, round synthetic, and cat’s tongue made from squirrel hair. The demonstration is interspersed with captions that explain the steps of the tutorial. MATERIALS Pentalic watercolor sketchbook: Cat’s Tongue Brush, 1/2 inch: Travel brush: Connoisseur 9467: Richeson Travel brush set: Water cup: Homemade easel: Tripod: PAINTS M. Graham (gouache): Holbein